Ken's mother was with us from December 14th until New Year's Eve. On her first day here, she said how much she was hoping that she could get to this one local park for a hike.
It was on her Very Last Day here that we finally got all our ducks in a row and got around to getting to the park. But it was a glorious morning for a hike.
But we're going to go back in about a week...
So we can start counting flowers. We were just a little bit too early this week, and only saw buds.
We had a few people over New Year's Eve.
I invited a lot of folks, several families, and with ONE exception, nobody RSVP'd. I guess I need to make more formal invitations. Maybe engraved? In the end, it was a pretty low turn-out, but those of us who were there had a great time.
I roasted a beef tenderloin and a pork tenderloin, and we did little sliders. They were delicious! I wish I had better photos. This is the only 'even close' shot I got. Our friend E, getting her bun ready. The mustards and mayo and (imported from Aigues-Mortes) salt are behind her. You can also see a lovely glass of raspberry-laden sangria behind her.
We didn't serve a lot of alcohol. I made a pitcher of sangria, and served the guys 'man drinks' out of the fridge (micro-brew beers and ales). And then I offered the ladies "girly drinks", and made Cosmopolitans.
Kelly made her cookie-press cookies again on New Year's Eve, and almost all 8 dozen got gobbled up. *burp*
They were these more-ish little bites that you could eat without thinking, while you played Ubongo 3-D...
or while you pondered your next move in Bamboleo...
There's nothing like ringing in the new year while you're still fresh.
It was Toni and The Other Ken who stayed until nearly 2am. Oh, my aching head. I think Toni would've been happy to leave (as I would have been happy to pack it in and head to bed), but the Two Kens started playing a new board game, and it didn't end until 1:30. I was almost at the point of flicking the lights, and Toni was getting ready to marshall the kids into their car, so they could just wait out on the street and sleep while her husband finished his last turn. Heh.
I still haven't figured out what hit me the next morning.
If it's a hangover? I can TOTALLY understand why people are so miserable now. I've never had a hangover before, and I swear, I thought I was going to die. I had a fever, I had chills, I was throwing up, I had the runs, my head hurt, my left cheekbone was on fire, my hips ached, and I could hardly turn my head without my shoulders and back screaming at me. I got up at 10, and got breakfast for Nate, did a load of laundry, and then promptly went back upstairs to hide in my bathroom for a while, before going back to bed until 4pm.
What a waste of a day.
And besides? Who gets a hangover on a half a cosmopolitan and two glasses of watered-down sangria? What a lightweight!
Today has been a bit more productive. I've finished up the laundry, moved the kids back into their respective rooms after Grandma's return to Canada early on New Year's Eve, and gone through Nate and Kelly's wardrobes, and removed anything that doesn't fit any more. There are now two big bins of clothing and out-grown books that will be going to the thrift store at my earliest convenience.
I need to keep this momentum going. I made the mistake of watching an episode of Hoarders last week, and oh man! It makes you want to go through your stuff and just THROW THINGS AWAY!
I did want to mention this wonderful little tidbit:
I DID NOT HAVE TO MAKE CHRISTMAS DINNER this year.
So while some of you were getting up at the crack of dawn to doctor a turkey, or baste a ham, or start working on a multitude of tasty side dishes, I was sawing logs, grateful for kids who liked to sleep in.
We were imagining that we would be heading over to Toni and The Other Ken's house around 3pm, for a 4pm Christmas dinner. What we were not expecting was a frantic call from Toni before noon, saying "The turkeys are cooking WAY faster than we thought! When can you get here?"
Well, that kind of put the kibosh on Ken's plans to make an apple pie and mince tarts in a leisurely way after the presents were opened. We burned through the last few presents, and then packed up all the ingredients for the pie and tarts, and headed off to their house.
Alas, we were not 2 blocks from our house when I said "hey! Where's my camera?"
Cue the U-turn, and the race back to the house. Good thing, too... I'd left the frozen chocolate bombe in our freezer. That was the other dessert that we were supposed to bring. Three desserts and a cheese platter is STILL *way* easier than putting together a whole meal.
And when we got to Toni's house, we discovered that they weren't as far ahead of schedule as we thought.
The turkeys were still in the smoker...
Oh man, the smells at that house were intoxicating!
I went out back, and helped Ken get the turkeys out of the smoker, and 'resting' before being carved.
One of the cheeses I'd brought was this brie-in-a-box that you put in the oven until it's bubbly. Then you dip crackers into it.
While I was "helping" with the turkeys outside, Ken took over a corner of the kitchen, and made the apple pie and mince tarts. Yum!
It was time for some exercise.
Kelly and Nate went with Toni's daughter, on bikes off to the local park.
But we move on.
For Christmas, I made Ken's mom a pair of socks. She loved them, loved the yarn, loved the colour, but it turns out that she has these little bird-like ankles, and 4A width feet, and the socks hung on her like schlumpy paper bags. So while everyone was sitting around on Christmas afternoon in a post-dessert sugar coma, I started making another pair, custom-fitted to her feet.
I'm using Kertzer Bamboo yarn, in a shade of muted moss green. It's lovely, except that the plies are so splitty, I want to poke myself in the eye with a 2mm rosewood needle. Fortunately, I was able to burn through the first sock before she got on the plane yesterday morning to fly back to Canada, so I have that one as a pattern to make the second one.
Now, if only I can keep the momentum, and get that sock done before next Christmas, I'll be doing fine.
Next entry: New Year's Eve at Chez Parker.
Every year, I kind of let something slide.
This year, I managed to pull of Christmas cards (well, to my aged relatives, anyways - yours may or may not be in the mail by the end of this week), but by the time Christmas Day rolled around, I realized I had not made a single solitary Christmas cookie.
Boxing day, Kelly mentions that there weren't a lot of cookies (we had some, as I had two friends come over with cookie tins full of nut-filled toxic-to-me goodies that the rest of the family has been enjoying, and Ken and Kelly went to a cookie baking extravaganza at the house of one of his colleagues). I had turned up a Christmas Cookie magazine while I was clearing out Skip's room earlier that day, and so I said "hey! Would you like to make cookies?"
(This served a double purpose, as I'd just gotten an email from church saying "We're having a cookie social tomorrow morning, so if you have any LEFT OVER cookies, could you bring them?" and I had no leftovers, but I could fake it, right?)
I figure, hey, it's the second day of Christmas... if we're celebrating Orthodox Christmas, I've still got 10 days left to get my act together, right?
Last year, I'd scored this great Wilton cast-aluminum cookie press on the clearance rack at a fancy-pants grocery store. I had never taken it out of the box, and it was about time.
Kelly was giddy with glee!
Her favorites were the Christmas Trees...
By the end of the afternoon, she'd made 8 cookie sheets of little perfect cookies. That's almost 16 dozen cookies (not including all the dough that we may-or-may-not-have eaten) I was sure that a hundred and fifty little buttery cookies would be a wonderful addition to the assortment the following morning at church.
Kelly's last tray of cookies was to test out the final attachment. It sort of looked like a bow tie, or maybe a propeller. She squirted out a pan-full of cookies, and then said "I'm going to decorate these with silver balls. I'll put one on each side of the bow tie!"
Alas, the cookies sort of spread out a bit while baking.
.
.
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Is it just me...?
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.
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What do you see...?
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.
Do you think the church ladies would notice? Maybe they'd enjoy the festive silver pasties?
We were up late, at church until midnight on Christmas Eve, at the traditional carol service that we do every year.
Skip played in the band, but Ken's mom knew that she couldn't stay up that late, and still be functional the next day, so it was just our nuclear family.
And then I motored home with very-sleepy Nate and Kelly, while Skip stayed with Ken to clean up. Skip had to break down the bass set-up, and get it into the car to come home. But he played around with his friends for a while first.
As a result of being up so late, our family didn't get rolling until after 9am on Christmas morning. After breakfast (for those who wanted to eat), it was time for Stockings!
Ick.
Anyways, we had a few interruptions (Ken has 4 younger brothers) for phone calls, and we didn't end up finishing unwrapping gifts until nearly noon! Skip kept saying "There are too many presents" because he is trying on a 'curmudgeon' personality, and because there was only ONE thing on his Christmas list. We kept saying "Just wait until you open the SKINNY JEANS we got you!" (he hates anything that isn't roomy and stretchy-with-elastic-waist).
I had worked until after midnight the day before Christmas Eve to make him a replacement cloak (Nate is wearing his old one in the 'stockings' photo above), seeing as his original one was from Halloween of his 3rd grade year. He was hoping for black.
He got black.
Kelly's list was very long, and included a pony. Hah. Yeah, right.
It did NOT include this:
"Is it... NO! It can't be...!!!!"
Ken got a great deal on a gently-used netbook hand-me-down from a guy at work. Kelly's old computer was one that had been discarded from Ken's former employer 8 years ago. It had no sound, and would only run if you took the case off.
She was TOTALLY surprised.
Skip's big gift...
"Hey! When did Adobe start packaging Flash in this smaller-sized box???? You tricked me!"
Yes. The *only* thing on Skip's Christmas wish list was Flash, which he was hoping to learn before taking any computer courses at college next year.
*listens*
Yup. He's upstairs right now, making little movies.
After seeing what Skip and Kelly got, Nate was pretty excited. But when all was said and done, what was Nate's best favorite gift?
Yup, that would be a hat, made out of a box that, I think, a pair of trousers were packed in.
Our Nate. He has the simple tastes.
But he was not left out.
He got hot sauce!(and that game "Wasabi!" that's behind him) I think he was most happy about getting the Sriracha hot sauce. We were down to the last drips in the bottom of the old bottle, and Nate was starting to get worried there wouldn't be any more.
But now, I must go and check on the roast. We're having The Other Ken and Toni over for supper. It's her birthday, and I've told them that they can't bring anything. So I guess I better make sure that we don't have any holes in the menu...
Next up...
Kelly makes inappropriate cookies!
For the last 6 years, or so, my mother in law has been sending me money in November, and asking if I would "shop for the children for Christmas". A couple of years ago, she added in "and here is money for you to buy something for you and my son". I love that she does that. She's VERY generous with the money, and I have weeks to plan, and to check sales, and to get things that I know the kids want and need. And then I have to get them less stuff, because Grandma just seemed to KNOW exactly what they wanted.
Partly, she does this because she just doesn't see the kids often enough to know what sizes they are, and she also realizes that no matter how many times we talk on the phone, and I make the kids say 'hi' to her, she's not going to be able to divine what it was that they most wanted to have for Christmas. Another big part, though, is because she is VERY mall-phobic. Like her eldest son, she would much rather poke her eye out with a stick than brave the crowds and no-natural-light setting of the narrow-aisled, over-stocked mall stores.
She tells me, over and over, that I am a hero for her, shopping so she doesn't have to. Sometimes, I let her off the hook, and tell her that it is a joy to shop with someone else's money (which it is). Other times, I just bask in the accolades.
So you get the idea that my mother in law does not shop.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise to you that I thought I heard the first horse of the apocalypse whinnying at the back door last night when she came up to me, and asked if I might be considering going to the Boxing Day Sale at Macy's the following morning (today: stores opened at 6am), because if I was, she would like to accompany me.
What? Is this some sort of test?
But it was all innocent as it turns out, because she'd seen a Macy's flyer (I recently opened a Macy's account - saved me $400 on a sofa in October - and the store now sends me nearly-daily flyers and reminders of all the money I could be saving if I used my credit card at their store - they don't seem to realize that I am saving WAY more by simply not shopping...) and had noticed that $110 cashmere sweaters were marked down to $39. Much as she is not a shopper, she does have a very nice modest wardrobe that has two cashmere sweaters in it, and she thought having a third, especially at that price, would be a wonderful expansion.
Together, we looked at the macys.com site, and examined the crew neck sweaters (the only style that she would consider wearing), and she thought that she would brave the mall for that kind of bargain. I suggested that there was no need for us to burst through Macy's doors when they opened at 6am, but that perhaps we could go over there after our 7:30 (regular time) breakfast.,
And so it was decided.
Mom then went upstairs to get ready for bed, and Ken looked at me. "My mother wants to go to a MALL?" he asked, incredulously.
"Yes, but I do worry that the selection will be a bit picked-over by 8am..." I replied.
He raised an eyebrow, "You *KNOW* you love to make those pre-dawn shopping expeditions...."
"I could make a reconnaissance run and be back before breakfast!" I whispered with glee. And so with that, I went off to bed while Ken waited for Skip to come home from an X-box party at a friend's house.
OK, I'll admit that I'm getting old for this. But when the radio blipped on at 5:45 this morning, I was SO ready to just hit the snooze button repeatedly. Alas, my "all Christmas music" radio station had reverted to "The 24-hour Huey Lewis and Bee-Gees show" content, and I couldn't get out of bed fast enough when my brain registered another chorus of "Happy to be stuck with you".
It was good that I went as early as I did. TEN MINUTES after the store opened, there were barely 6 sweaters left on the rack. And only one size medium, and one size large. The rest (and the rest of the other styles, too) were all X-large, and my mother in law is very petite.
I took the only medium (cool red - "claret") and the only large (black) into a fitting room, and tried them both on. The medium fit, but perhaps was a little more form-fitting on my post-Christmas-feasting belly than was modest. The large was a bit roomy, and had extra fabric in the back, but draped down the front better.
Decisions, decisions...
I bought them both.
And, true enough, when I got home, not a creature was stirring.
I was able to get breakfast ready before my mother in law came downstairs, and then I sprang it on her,
"Mom, I thought that there might be limited stock on hand, so I took a look, and I'm sorry to say but there were no size smalls at our local Macy's. There was one size medium, though, and I bought it, and if you like, you can try it on. If it's a colour you like, you can have it, otherwise, I'll keep it, and we can order another one in your choice of colour from the macy's online store, and the sweater should arrive before you head back to Canada."
Her eyes got wide. "What? You mean... I don't have to go to the mall? I get to shop at home?"
She gave me a big hug. "You have just made my day!"
And, wonderfully enough, the size medium was exactly right for her. About as roomy on her as the large is on me. And the colour is a PERFECT foil for her pale skin and silver hair.
I hope she wears the sweater to church tomorrow. She'll be a knock-out.
When Ken's mom came, we thought it might be a good idea, because she's going to be here for more than two weeks, that we plan some short adventure, perhaps an over-night, to break up the long expanse of the visit.
Not that a long visit is a bad thing, but it might be fun for the kids to be counting the days for a variety of reasons.
So yesterday, I thought "I'll find out if it's even POSSIBLE for us to visit Ano Nuevo State Reserve, and we'll make that one of the ends of a two-day trip down the coast after Christmas. If we can't, we can always just head to Monterey, and spend a day in the aquarium, and then go farther down the coast." (Ano Nuevo is where the Elephant Seals congregate every year between December and March. It's protected, so you can only access the beaches of the park on a guided tour, and the tours regularly sell out on the first day that the reservation line is opened in October)
I called the reserve reservation line, and asked if it would be possible for our family to visit the reserve in the week after Christmas.
They had exactly ONE ticket available on the 28th.
Um, yeah, that's not going to work for us.
It was looking like we wouldn't get to see the Elephant Seals, when the lady said "But I do have six tickets available for tomorrow..."
Sign me up!
I had to take a deep breath before telling the family, though. Because the only tour time available was the nine o'clock IN THE MORNING tour, and that meant leaving our house shortly after seven. And this is supposed to be VACATION, and I could see the boys whining before I'd even finished explaining what our big adventure was going to be.
They settled down, though, when I said that they could sleep in the van all the way there.
Things were not looking good this morning, though. It was foggy, and misty, and all closed-in, and threatening rain in a big way. And on the drive, we had the windshield wipers going all the way there. I considered not even taking my camera on the hike, just in case it got too wet from the constant cycle of mist-drizzle-rain-deluge.
The museum and gift shop were pretty cool. They're in an old dairy barn, and you had to watch your step and your head... the floor sloped with original old floorboards, and the beams were laid in a time when people were shorter... or just more observant when they walked around...
As we walked, single-file, across the dunes towards the next viewing area, I suddenly pointed at a lump. Is that an elephant seal?
Yup. Apparently, they're seismically sensitive, and the vibrations from our footsteps had wakened it. Until we came by, it had just looked like a shiny dark brown lump beside the boardwalk. Fortunately, he wasn't willing to exert any effort to scare us off. Whew. He was bigger than my minivan.
We tip-toed, single-file along the boardwalk to the next viewing place, and it was breath-taking!
Yup. Closer than I ever thought I'd get.
And check this out... a young female:
The kids ended up having a grand old time.
Ken's mom was just delighted with the event.
FIGHT!
But by the time I got home, I was EXHAUSTED! I'd been up since 630, and it felt like supper time when we got home at 1pm. I made lunch for everyone, and then lied down on the couch, and the next thing I knew, it was supper time. I better not be getting sick. I still have presents to wrap!
